Neil Danns fired Palace to within a point of npower Championship survival, dealing a major blow to Leeds' hopes of getting out of it.

Danns, who has refused a contract extension and has been linked with a summer move to Hull, struck after just two minutes to leave Palace six points clear of the drop zone with two games to play.

Leeds, meanwhile, are left counting the cost of their fifth straight away loss - and are now relying on teams above them slipping up if they are to get back into play-off contention.

But Grayson is refusing to give up hope.

"We want to turn a good season into a great season," he said.

"The next two games are both winnable. We still have a fighting chance and football has a funny way of being unpredictable.

"It is out of our hands now, where a few weeks ago it was down to us. We have not had the breaks and it showed again today.

"If it doesn't happen this year then we will come back again and try next year."

Palace are all but safe but opposite number Dougie Freedman is keeping the champagne on ice.

He said: "We are not quite there yet, mathematically we can still have things go against us.

"We want to finish the season on a high with two wins and we will reassess it for next season.

"I have reassured the lads that they are good enough to stay up and told them to keep a smile on their faces - and they have done that."

The visitors had more than enough of the ball - especially in the second half - to do damage, but were frustrated by the Palace defence.

Leeds goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was partly at fault for Danns' second-minute winner, after he failed to clear Kagisho Dikgacoi's cross.

Danns was left on his own as his shot took a deflection and stunned the 5,300-strong Leeds support into silence.

Leeds' main aim looked to be to mark the attacking foursome of wide man Danns, Steffen Iversen, Jermaine Easter and left winger Wilfried Zaha out of the game.

Max Gradel was lucky to stay on the pitch on 24 minutes, following a crunching tackle on the goalscorer.

Leeds had a massive let-off on 33 minutes when a poor backpass from Andy O'Brien left Schmeichel flapping, with Iversen bearing down.

Schmeichel managed to get to the ball first, but he booted it straight at Iversen. Reinforcements arrived just in time for the keeper to get back into position.

Four minutes later Easter should have doubled Palace's lead, but he sliced his close-range shot wide.

Leeds came out firing after the break and Bradley Johnson's superb curling effort on 55 minutes was only just kept out by Eagles keeper Julian Speroni.

Then substitute Davide Somma was kept out by Speroni in the 75th minute as Palace clung on.

Danns was sent off in injury time for a second booking, but it was not enough to stop the Palace crowd from celebrating.